Snow-cover Trend Analysis in Shyok River Basin Using GIS Techniques

In order to meet challenges of the growing water demands, an improved management of water resources is required. pakistan depends on glacier and snow melt from Upper Indus Basin situated in the mountainous ranges of Himalaya?Karakoram?Hindukush (HKH).Despite such importance assessment of cryosp

Project Title

Snow-cover Trend Analysis in Shyok River Basin Using GIS Techniques

Project Area of Specialization

Artificial Intelligence

Project Summary

In order to meet challenges of the growing water demands, an improved management of water resources is required. pakistan depends on glacier and snow melt from Upper Indus Basin situated in the mountainous ranges of Himalaya–Karakoram–Hindukush (HKH).Despite such importance assessment of cryosphere dynamics cannot be done remotely with accuracy especially in mountainous areas. To obtain precision, other sources of information such as station data and snow-covered area, should be used together. Therefore this study will be carried out to explore the changes in snow covered area in Shyok River basin (Sub-catchment of the Indus River) with the help of Machine learning,remote sensing ,GIS techniques. Satellite Images of MODIS sensor will be used to examine the variation in snow. Modis 8-day composite images from 2000-2018 will be selected to investigate SCA due to its high accuracy. Furthermore climate data will be made available to study correlation among snow cover fluctuation with varying precipitation, minimum temperature and maximum temperature for years of 2000-2018.Analysis and results will show that remote sensing is a useful technique for estimation of snow in difficult and complex topography moreover results will also indicates the status of SCA and its correlation with the climate data.

Project Objectives

The main objectives of the project were to  investigation 

1. The Average annual and monthly snow cover dynamics in Shyok basin situated in the Karakorum range using MODIS remote sensing snow products(Terra and Aqua) for the period between  2000 to 2018.
2. The effects of changing climatic conditions on the behavior of snow cover extent of Shyok river basin.
3. The Correlation of meteorological stations data (max temperature, min temperature and precipitation) with the obtained remotely sensed snow cover variation in the study area.
4. Applying Machine learning algorithms to predict the future behaviour of snow.

Project Implementation Method

Snow Cover Trend Analysis over the period of 19-years (2000-2018)

The snow covered area will be estimated from processing MODIS/Terra images. As 8-day composite Image will be used for the overall time period of 19-years contains around 870 Images.

In addition to overall assessment of SCA.We will also analyze in seasonal pattern for better representation of the data. Pakistan is a country which enjoys all four seasons where spring occurs in (March-May), summers in (June-August), autumn in (Sep-Nov) and winter in (Dec-Feb).

seasonal evolution of snow cover from (2000 to 2018).The peak value for snow cover is usually found during spring and winters and low for summers and autumn but a few years shows that summers have higher values for snow cover in contrary to winters.

The project will be impletment in following order:

1. Literature Review will be carried out regarding previous studies carried out in our study area.

2. Sattlite images will be aquaired for the sudy area (Weekly images for last 18 years).

3. Data will be processed in softwares to make ready for analysis.

4. Data analysis will be carried out, generating graphs for weekly, monthly, annual, and decadal comparisons.

5. Based on data analysis conclusions and recommendations will be drawn.

6. Further machine learning algorithms will be applied to make future predictions and projections.

Benefits of the Project

The Shyok River basin situated in the high elevations of eastern Karakorum is one of the main river of Indus, which inflow mainly depends on the amount of snow and ice accumulated in the basin and the energy Influx associated to mean temperature. Assessment of snow cover variability over the Shyok river basin will be analyzed using remote sensing satellite data and meteorological stations observation which helps us in managing water resources in the region by giving clear picture of cryosphere dynamics and future patterns of water resouces.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Final deliverable is a software system. Data will be analyzed using Image processing techniques and results will be gathered in the soft form to apply further machine learning algorithms.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Software System

Type of Industry

IT

Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI)

Sustainable Development Goals

Climate Action

Required Resources

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